Did you just buy an 8GB iPhone and paid full price? And are you feeling upset over the $200 dollar price drop that Apple (AAPL) just announced? Well there is a way you can help yourself and get $200 back. Apple’s store return policy states:
Should Apple reduce its price on any Apple-branded product within fourteen (14) calendar days of the date of purchase, you may request a refund of the difference between the price paid and the current selling price. An original purchase receipt is required, and you must request your refund within fourteen (14) calendar days of the price reduction.
Just to clarify, if you bought the phone from Apple store, then you can get the refund from Apple. Otherwise visit the AT&T Store to request a refund.
Oops! That will hurt someone 🙂
Om, by far the best 4 of Sept iphone post after the hype! Great ! 🙂
5 of Sept I mean 🙂
Dino,
don’t even ask how angry i am right now about paying full price and getting shanked by jobs inc.
Does this apply to Apple online store purchase as well?
You can also threaten to return it if you are within fourteen days of having received it and they will refund you the difference. I had actually purchased mine 15 days ago but since I didnt receive it until a day later (ordered online) I was able to fall within the time frame.
Woohoo!
Thank you!!
Om, I’m with you. It took a lot for me to shell out the $599, and that was little more than two months ago. I bought the iPhone knowing full well that the price would drop, as it did with the iPod.
I just didn’t think it would happen so soon. It’s like Apple fleeced the early-adopters.
What happens if it has been more than 14 days?
Usually, your articles are awesome, but this sounds like the rantings of a spoiled 18 year old. This is the price of being an early adopter. Would I have liked to pay $300 instead of $600? No, not if it meant wating the intervening months. Crying like a girl demeans you. You are much better than this.
I would tend to agree that its pointless to whine about a price drop for a product in the electronic consumer market but a 200 dollar drop in under 2 months for a product thats selling well??? Thats ridiculous.
This is very bad strategy by Apple, and it is now way to treat early adopters. The early adopters are the advocates the fans the supporters the ones that help market the product. If anything the price should go up to reward the early adopters.
I feel ripped off especially since I bought the 4gb version and I could of bought the 8gb for less.
To me this seems like desperation as sales have probably slowed down much quicker than they thought.
Monal,
clearly there is more than that meets the eye. i think the sales might be slower than they are admitting.
And you know what ? There is no reason for Apple to have cut the price for the iPhone… I think it will play against them with the angry Apple mob….
Om has their been any analysis or at least theories on manufacturing costs for the iPhone? I’m interested in seeing what Apple’s margins are(obviously high)
all of the iPhone sales news seems to be positive at least from July data, I’m still scratchin my head tryin to figure out this strategy
http://www.isuppli.com/news/default.asp?id=8424&m=9&y=2007
clearly there is more than that meets the eye. i think the sales might be slower than they are admitting.
Not so sure about that. Jobs said that they were ahead of the expectation to deliver the 1 millionth iPhone. However, I see this as Apple trying to get iPhone into as many customers’ hands as possible during a Christmas quarter so that it becomes a breakout quarter, i.e. get a critical mass going as soon as they can. The sooner iPhone repeats iPod’s success, the better Apple can compete in the cellphone market. Also, the bigger drop than expected in the flash NAND price may play a big factor too.
Om has their been any analysis or at least theories on manufacturing costs for the iPhone? I’m interested in seeing what Apple’s margins are(obviously high)
iSuppli said before that the estimated costs for a 8GB one was about $280. With the drop of NAND module prices, it should be lower now. However, the number was a guess and didn’t take R&D into account, so take it with a cup of salt.
Its nice of Steve to spin a Cinderella story by asserting that the iPhone has the highest customer satisfaction of any Apple product ever shipped but come on, its only been out for a few months now. Something seems amiss for them to risk ticking off the early adopters / loyal customers by chopping $200 off the price so soon. Saying that they just want to get aggressive for the holiday season by dropping the price 33%? Oh really? Who’s reality distortion field is that? Sounds like the ghost of the G4 Cube.
And you know what ? There is no reason for Apple to have cut the price for the iPhone… I think it will play against them with the angry Apple mob….
hahahahaahahaha
man, there are some seriously f*cked up people commenting on this site… hilarrrrrrrriousssssssssss…
hahahahaahaha yes, apple charging $200 less for a product is a so so so so so mean!!!!!! how dare they cut the price of one of their products!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahaahahahahaha
everyone will hate them for it… hahahahaahahahahaha
best laugh i have had all week… thanks for the insane posts…
good to know, I just purchased my iphone few days back 🙁
does anybody know how & where to claim the refund? can’t go to the apple store, as I’m european had a friend bring it overseas… 😉
It’s not so much that people are upset that the iPhone’s price was dropped. Obviously that’s a good thing in the long run, for the most part.
The real deal here is how did this happen?
Is it conceivable that the bottomline on the iPhone has changed that considerably in just a couple months to warrant a 33% drop? Was a new deal struck with manufacturing? Was a new patent obtained or licensing rearranged?
Probably not.
The question then becomes, was Apple deliberately taking advantage of their core support system of enthusiasts and early adopters? To me, if feels like this is what the iPhone’s bottom line is and has always been. This pricing structure makes sense for them and at some point a decision was made to charge a premium to that core audience since they will grab it no matter what.
Charging a premium to be a passionate Apple user doesn’t sit well with me. Now there is a dilemma when it comes to the next big hypefest — which is largely due to the independent Apple fans out there.
The next iPhone-esque product to be hyped will have blog titles resembling “Next big thing from Apple, but don’t buy it right away.”
I got mine 3 weeks ago BUT exactly 13 days ago the camera flaked on me and I had to exchange it for a new one. I’ll going to go to the PA store tomorrow and see what happens. The problem is that I bought it at the ATT store but exchanged it at the Apple Store.
Argh Steve!
I was really enjoying my smug dig at them for their F You to people who wanted iphones but didn’t have a ton of money to spend. Damn you, Apple and your forgiving return policy!
You can let yourself be heard by emailing anyone and everyone listed at this site to express your feelings about the price drop and lack of refunds after 14days…
http://www.apple.com/pr/contacts/
I hope Apple gets as many new customers as they have lost of the old. A previously loyal Mac (11 items) household. With this move we will never be confident of the pricing of any Apple product to purchase again.
I just bought mine 15 days back.. I want my money back
At the very least, Apple just made its most loyal customers out to be fools to their friends and family who were enthusiastically shown Apple’s newest product. Everyone’s going to be saying “damn, I heard you got ganked by Apple”.
With the iPod Touch coming out – which is basically the iPhone without the phone – the economy of scale becomes huge. These 2 products will share most parts so that now instead of selling a million touch screens a quarter in just the iPhone they will be selling 3 – 4 – 5 million ?? who know ?? but can you imagine the price break you would get if you told your supplier that instead of a million parts this quarter I want 5 million?
I think the market would not support a touch iPod that cost more than $299. For $300 more, all you get is phone features, so the price had to come down so that the touch iPod would not canibalize the fledgling iPhone business. The iPhone business must grow at this time in order to fully establish itself in the handset market and the new iPod line-up is so good it threatens that growth.
My 2 cents.
Somebody said they got shanked for purchasing an iPhone. That sounds rather extreme. Nobody is being forced to buy an iPhone. Price reductions can come at any time. Apple is no different.
Next time just hold off for a couple of months before you buy an Apple product. Don’t have a need to be the first one on your block to get a new product. Jeez. Just stay behind the curve a bit.
Of course iPhone sales are falling behind and now they have to burn inventory to achieve any credibility in sales numbers. Investors don’t like feeling duped. Apple isn’t saying anything, but certain analysts are really pumping Apple numbers and margins and are going to really upset investors when the numbers aren’t met. Apple’s stock probably won’t move much the rest of this year until the holiday season is over. Today, they got the final kiss of death with the iPhone price reduction. I don’t think even the analysts saw that coming.
Early adopters want to claim to be supporters of Apple like they are hereos! People pay a premium for something because supply is low and demand is high.
Fact: Demand has dropped…supply is up…price is lowered to spur demand.
Be happy with what you bought early adopters…you bought the right to crow and show off for 2 months…You paid $200 so that people would ask you questions and pay attention to you. That’s what you wanted…that’s what you paid for.
Jobs gave you exactly what you asked for.
Om,
One theory on why cut prices is an imminent introduction or announcement of a 3G variant of the iPhone. Therefore the EDGE equipped phones need to be lowered to make room for a new top of the line $600 3G version. It would be consistent with other smartphone pricing tiers (e.g. Treos EDGE vs. 3G).
The alternative of keeping the Edge iPhone at $600 and adding the 3G model at $800 is not workeable for mass market. My guess/hope is that we’ll see a 3G version in time for the holidays – even if in the US it would only be available on AT&T.
I have to say, the phone-less iPhone is pretty sweet pricewise, I don’t know how the iPhone price could have held up against it.
Also, since when haven’t Apple fans paid a premium? I had to ditch around the OS 8.6 days, it was all too much for me.
The early adopters who shelled out $599 to get your hands on the iPhone when it first came out have little to cry about in my book. Electronic devices always come down in price, that’s nothing new. So this price cut should not have come as a huge surprise.
Although, I will say that it does seem like this price reduction came a bit early since the iPhone has been on the market for such a short time. However, this just comes with the territory of being an early adopter of any new technology product. You should expect prices to come down, and you should also expect that a product will only get better as the 2nd and 3rd generation come out.
I know you guys are all pissed (except for the MS fanboys who think it’s funny), but I’ve been so legitimately happy with my iPhone for the last two months, traveling here and abroad with it, that I have no problem having paid $200 extra. Maybe I’m just in a place financially where it’s not that big a deal, but I actually think that the product is just that good.
It’s brought me much more than $200 worth of joy since June 29th. That’s all I’m saying.
Just a speculation. But to me this only makes sense if they want to build critical mass for a platform. Before Google or Microsoft moves in and creates an expandable platform with backend services. Only the iphone is not a platform, no own backend services like mail or voice mail (provided by another company) Isn’t Eric Schmidt on Apple’s board? Maybe Steve Jobs knows more about Google’s plans than we guess.
I just bought the 4gb iPhone on 22nd Aug.
I went to the AT&T store to return today and they told me its 15 days – hence wouldn’t get the $200 credit.
Any possiblity I can get a refund or exchange for an 8 gb iphone.
Thanks Om, I just got off the phone, $$ in my pocket because of your post.
clink
WTF – how has no one mentioned the AT&T restocking fee yet? Yeah, you can go back to AT&T for return/refund, but you are gonna be charged the $50 fee regardless. I still think its cool you will get either $150 back, or $50 back (depending on which iPhone you got) but the writer of this blog entry should have been clear about the restocking fee in place!
This is confirmed by the way, my sister went to the AT&T store with the 4GB iPhone she bought yesterday, and DID have to pay $50 since she broke the seal on that bag they put you iPhone in when you buy it. But, she was able to get the 8GB iPhone, and $50 back, so it’s still a win.
Me again, nevermind. I’m tired 😀
My sister was charged the fee obviously because she decided to swap and get the 8gb and not keep the 4gb one she got yesterday. DUH! Sorry, lol.
I guess if she woulda kept the 4gb she woulda got the full $200 back? Since Apple is selling the last of the 4gb model for $299 now? Hmm.
Anyways, gnite. 😉
Om,
The real question is whether you’re going to line up to get the next Hot Apple Gadget. If you are…well, that makes your griping pointless.
Jonathan,
which line in the post reads as “me griping.” I was just trying to point out to those who just bought the iPhone how to get their $200 back.
The only thing that can save Steve and Co, is reverse his decision and increase the price of the iPhone to make all the early adopters happy.
whatever.
I see this price cut as acceptance of failure to reach people. This is the first weakness shown by Apple and ofcourse more to come. Lets’wait and watch.
yeah good luck if you bought the iPhone from the AT&T store! way to find the loophole though
http://www.drunkenpanda.com
Great news!
It is still a better deal than the iPod. Check this
Thanks. This helps. Anything on ipods?
What? Has no one bought consumer electronics before? This stuff happens all the time. I bought a TV a few months back, and within a month, the price dropped.
Of course, no one reads a Panasonic press release, but everyone pays attention when Steve Jobs talks.
My guess is that this sort of thing happens all the time, you just don’t hear about your TV or your GPS system dropping in price right after you buy it.
Frankly, when I buy something, I stop paying attention to prices because I really don’t want to know that I could have gotten it cheaper if I waited a month or two.
Good policy. I had read the engadget article on this and not one person pointed out the refund policy, they just cried.
The price of the phone was dropped to increase sales. The initial price is peanuts compared to the revenue from song purchases, ring tones, and the monthly service fee over the next few years.
This is pretty typical price adjustment policy for retail. I received my iphone yesterday, the day of the drop and was prepared to return it, but uncovered the same refund policy.
With the price drop and the nano announcement, the apple phone lines were jammed last night. I spent 40 minutes on hold and was then cut off. Fuming, I called right back. 30 minutes to be transferred to the correct department from the general iphone number, another 30 to get a person who said they would happily honor my request and refund the difference to my card in 3-5 days.
Here is an important tip for anyone who is approaching or beyond the 14 day period. If by chance you did not open your iphone, DO NOT OPEN IT. Apple charges a restocking charge of 10% for opened packages. So, if you choose to return the phone and then buy a new one, it will cost you !0% of $599 in the case case of an 8G, plus shipping, which removes about $70 from your $200 savings. Hardly worth it. You are better off just threatening to return.
Now with my newfound cash I can go buy OS 10.4 since apple does not even support their own 2 year-old OS.
it.s a greatnews but wait n watch what will happen next
If you used a credit card for purchasing, that credit card may have price protection for price drops for a longer period than Apple’s. Check it out.
Ok there is an additional way to uncover the money if you bought it within 90 days.
Many premium credit cards have built in Purchase Protection and all you have to do is launch a claim and the credit card co would administer the refund and price protection.
Yes – it may take more time then simply get refund from the Apple and AT&T store. But then again you an have 20 nice grand lunches with your money you possibly get!
Nice catch!
Of course, I’m not sure what the point of this sort of policy really is. There is ALWAYS going to be a cutoff point past which you bought something too late to get a refund: why is it anymore reasonable that the cutoff is the day of the announcement vs. 14 days earlier?
Crying like a girl demeans you. You are much better than this.
J. Sheppard on September 5th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
How about posting like an sexist pig, J. Sheppard? Does that demean you?
Well, some of us don’t have to be concerned about the $200 premium paid by “first adopters”, we’ll wait until every vendor comes up with the commoditized version.
http://indefatigable-indolence.org/blog1/?p=179
Apparently, the two weeks thing is simply because they don’t want half of the people that purchased the phone to demand two-hundred dollars back.
How can they afford this anyway?
Does that mean that the iPhone is so overpriced that each phone pays for itself two times over?
I’m not buying one and from the looks of it, I’m not planning on it even if they drop lower.
Honestly, I believe Apple is doing 1 of 2 things here.
-or-
Are you happy now OM 🙂 http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/
I bought my 8gb iphone for $599 12 days ago. I printed out my receipt and walked into the local store. The manger gave me a $200 store credit. I put the $200 bucks toward the purchase of the last 4gb iphone they had in stock. For only $100 bucks more out of pocket. $700 bucks for 2 iphones. I have no idea if that’s REALLY a good deal or not but I’m happy. And yeah, I absolutely love my iphone.
I bought my 8gb iphone for $599 on August 12th. Now I learn it is $200 less. In addition, I am unable to make calls from our house due to poor reception. I was willing to continue and be content with service while on the road. This is a bit much.
Why are people (Mac fan-boys & fan-girls) complaining? For only a measly $200 they got chance to be the coolest people in the entire universe for 10 weeks! And, isn’t that exactly what they all wanted? That aside, I read plenty of pre-release articles that clearly indicated Apple’s margins were to die for on the iPhool.
Grow up, cry babies. Even better, leave the in-your-dreams heaven of Apple and join the rest of us here in reality on planet Earth.